An interesting book offering some optimism and hope in these trying times. It's easy to watch the news these days and conclude that humans are a bad lot, and in this book Rutger Bregman sets out to prove that that is not the case.

This book should be read simply for the fact that it challenges some of our assumptions. We tend to believe that the human race if extrinsically bad and without leaders or control would be complete anarchy. According to Bregman, the opposite is true, we are actually good but we are told that we are not so we can be controlled. By the media and our leaders.

This is not a conspiracy theory Bregman quotes lots of research to makes his point and also shows that some research that we have taken for valid is possibly very flawed. The crunch of the matter is our transition from hunter gatherers to agricultural society and the arrival of property and the need to protect it.
Overall some of the stuff is compelling and convincing and it is good to look at things differently every so often. The problem I have with the book is that it does not really give many solutions, are there any?

It is good to know that hunter gatherers would not have chosen leaders like ours, on the contrary they would have expelled them. The ability to collaborate and care for the community were sought after qualities while any sociopath individual with egocentric characteristics would have been expelled from the community. It is good to know but it would be even better to know how we could actually change the way we choose our leaders, how we reform the media and our institutions so that they reflect our alleged good nature rather than the psychopathic nature of our leaders.
The book gives lots of examples of prisons, schools, workplaces and so on that put trust on the individual and work really well, but how do we apply that principle to everything else?

In a few words the book left me wanted to know more and do more but all I got was ok and now what next?

What a superb and timely book!

Bregman takes the notion that, contrary to apparently widely held opinion, humans are fundamentally kind and then looks at the evidence for and against this notion. The reader is taken on an easily digestible journey looking at, and analysing, the arguments and evidence. Bregman then deftly brings the whole to a conclusion, finishing with 10 take-away points.

Read at a time when the background was Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter this was an inciteful read and allowed the reader to form opinions as they went. It might sit on the "non-fiction" shelf but don't let that stop you reading what I think will become a staple discussion text. Its conversational style is accessible to all.

With huge thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Humankind fulfilled my expectations of an accessible non-fiction with an optimistic and hopeful tone. However, I found it dragged a bit at times, and although it's quite interesting as far as the history of ideas is concerned, I found it a bit over-simplistic for Rutger Bregman's argumentation to be completely convincing in some instances. Nevertheless, it gives food for thought, and is far preferable to the pessimist and other selfish ideologies around.

Extremely interesting insight into what makes us human. The level of research undertaken by is staggering. I found the book fascinating and incredibly informative. It's an accessible read too and particularly uplifting in these difficult Covid19 times. I've already gifted a copy.

This books delves deep into the theories that have been postulated about the human race over the centuries and examines the (often lacking) science behind them, whilst simultaneously looking at the evidence around us now and from our deep and distant past, before we began living in the civilisations we do now. Covering gender, race, crime, education and a myriad of other topics, this is a truly fascinating dive into our humanity and what makes us behave in the ways we do.

An important refutation of the long standing wisdom that humans are naturally brutal and selfishly motivated. It was dense with information - not a light read - and it's very interesting. I found myself agreeing with a lot of it and disagreeing with a few key points. The message that hope is an act of bravery and that to approach other people hopefully is a seditious act was well received. I'm not 100% convinced except at the base level where most people are generally 'good'. Worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
I know I write long reviews, so I wanted to give a heads up to those who prefer a brief one. I loved this book. Why? I picked up this book based on NetGalley’s recommendations as good read for these current times when things feel quite tough and most people feel quite negative. And they were right. It’s difficult to read this book and not feel more optimistic by the end of it, even if you might not be absolutely convinced by all of the author’s arguments. It is engaging, easy to read, compelling, it includes a large variety of studies from many disciplines (criminology, sociology, anthropology, history, economics, ethnology, biology, literature…), and I think most readers will be familiar and/or intrigued by many of the topics he touches on. And it does look at all of those with new eyes. It also collects a large number of positive examples of human behaviour, so, if you need an injection of optimism, I recommend it. There is a detailed index, and plenty of notes, but as I said, it is a book written for the general public rather than for academicians or experts, and no specialist knowledge in any of the fields it touches on is necessary to enjoy it.
In the acknowledgements, the author explains how the book came to be. Dutch philosopher Rob Wijnberg told him he had a project. He wanted to launch a new kind of publication “with no news, no advertising and no cynicism”. That became De Correspondent and Bregman explains that the book is the result of working there for seven years, and of many of the conversations he had with readers over these years. This explains, perhaps, why the book is so varied. Anybody who has done research (academic, for work reasons, for a specific project, or out of personal interest) knows that once you start pursuing something, it’s easy to get side-tracked by bits of interesting information and go down the rabbit hole following those, because sometimes those discoveries feel more interesting than the original story, or simply because new things keep coming to light, and, well, you just need to know more.
This book is roughly divided into two main halves. One where the author, after explaining his thesis about the nature of human beings (I’ll only tell you he calls us ‘Homo Puppy’. I’ll let you read the rest yourselves), he explores a large number of studies and arguments proposing that human beings are naturally egotistical, violent, aggressive… and challenges many of those. Bombings during the war, psychology experiments (the Stanford prison experiment by Zimbardo, the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority involving electroshocks …), friendly foxes, Neanderthals, educational experiments, studies of old civilizations and ancestral bones, Easter Island, William Goldwing’s Lord of the Flies, Hobbes and Rousseau’s philosophical ideas among other, all are discussed and analysed. I was familiar with many of the studies, and even with some of the criticisms, later reappraisals and evidence against them, but not with all, and I have learned plenty and been inspired to dig deeper into some of the stories. Although he supports all of his claims and interpretations with notes, he does it in an engaging way, and the result is an accessible and clever page turner.
In the second half, Bregman shares examples of people and communities who have done things differently with impressive results. I was aware of some, like the way Norway runs its prisons, but others made me pause (in particular, the reference to Jos de Blok, who runs a home healthcare organisation without heavy top-down management and allows the groups of workers to organise and manage themselves), and I particularly enjoyed part 5, ‘The Other Cheek’ . The author acknowledges that, of course, the instances he discusses are not perhaps as well-accepted and regarded as he thinks they deserve, and one example does not change everything, but he does maintain that an optimistic attitude can bring a positive change, and I hope he is right.
He also includes, with some reluctance, ten rules to live by at the end of the book, and I cannot fault them, although they are not easy to implement. I have already mentioned the acknowledgments section, the notes, and the index, that occupy around 19% of the e-book.
In sum, I enjoyed the book enormously, and I think most readers will get something positive out of it. I know not all reviewers are convinced by the author’s arguments, and that is to be expected, but I think no matter what conclusion you reach by the end of it, it offers plenty of food for thought. I definitely will be looking into some of the initiatives he talks about in more detail, and I will follow Bregman’s career with interest from now on. If you need a bright and well-argued book, full of hopeful content, don’t hesitate. Go for it.

This is an absolute must read that supports the assumption that I had long suspected - that humans are actually good. Every few pages I would be so astounded by something I read that I would have to stop and recount it to anyone in the room with me. Examining how flawed many of the studies that have taken place which supposedly proved that humans are intrinsically bad as well as looking at what happens when people are treated with trust and understanding, Humankind is a real eye opener.

I finished this book filled with optimism about what the future of the human race could look like. At a time of great change in the world, when so many people are coming together to demand an end to racism, this book is a very timely read. The notion that left to their own devices people will treat each other well and with kindness and compassion may seem revolutionary but this is what the world needs.

I'm really interested in sociology and have read a few books about its more specific aspects. This book is a grand sweep about human nature in its many facets. What's so fascinating about it is that it takes very familiar case studies (such as the Stanford prison experiment, and the bystander effect) and goes through the reality of them, point by point. It's shocking, the misleading claims about these studies that have been perpetuated. The book makes you believe in the humanity of people again, with so many amazing stories.

I began this book half way through my lockdown in the middle of the COVID pandemic. It's not something I usually pick up, especially in a time when escaping to a fictional world is so tempting, but I'm happy I did!
This is a well researched piece of non-fiction which is both fascinating and informative. At the core, Rutger Bregman argues that all human beings are basically good. He does this by referring to the great evils and depressing examples of humans at their worst and counters them by busting the myths and putting forward contrasting evidence to support the good natured Homo puppy. Would recommend.

2020 isn’t proving to be an easy time to remain optimistic. But if you’re looking for something that might help you feel hopeful, Humankind by Rutger Bregman, part philosophy book, part call to arms, is a stimulating and easy-to-read place to start.

To paraphrase Bregman, these might be the most challenging words you read this year:

“Most people, deep down, are pretty decent”.

With the Cummingses and Trumps of this world filling the headlines recently, it might be hard to believe that statement, but what Bregman’s book does is walk you through lots of stories and arguments to try convince you that yes, human beings are indeed fundamentally good. Not only that, if we were to wholesale start acting if we believed in our species’ essential goodness, the world could be transformed in a truly exciting, beneficial, enriching way.

Wide-ranging stories -from a real-life case echoing the Lord of the Flies basic plot line, to the puzzle of the statues on Easter Island, via gene research done on domesticating foxes and the infamous and terrifying psychological experiments carried out by Milgram and Zimbardo - form Bregman’s canvas for exploring the varied arguments in favour and against the claim that is widely made (including by many religions); that we’re born bad.

And it’s a challenging read.

“Belief in human kind’s sinful nature also provides a tidy explanation for the existence of evil. When confronted with hatred of selfishness you can tell yourself, ‘oh well, that’ just human nature’. But if you believe that people are essentially good, you have to question why evil exists at all. It implies that engagement and resistance are worthwhile, and it imposes an obligation to act.”

To inspire us, Bregman then goes on to explore a number of ways around the world a different, more positive, constructive approach has been taken, whether that is the participatory democracy seen in the Venezuelan principality of Torres, the Norwegian prison system where inmates are treated as people not monsters, or the story of how South African avoided all out civil war in the months leading up to the inauguration of Mandela as the first President following the Apartheid era.

It’s an encouraging and exhilarating read.

I’ve a t-shirt which says “Read books: Complicate your point of view”. This is certainly a book to do that. Whilst much of what Bregman convincingly argues for is exciting and uplifting, at times things pop up that worry me. If you’re an introvert, Bregman’s argument that sociable people are smarter won’t sit well. If you believe changing human behaviour is a key plank to mitigating climate catastrophe, you’ll be frustrated by his rather glib faith in our ability to invent our way out of the environmental disaster we are facing. He also makes an argument for empathy being a bad thing…

You may believe that it’s unrealistic or idealistic to believe that people are fundamentally kind and good, but I for one, want to believe Bregman’s arguments. Bregman’s proposal that we fundamentally restructure how we act, either as individuals, groups, organisations or countries, so that at all stages we are informed by a belief in better, in goodness, and in hope is one to make you feel optimistic even in these hard times.

In Humankind, Bregman sets out to prove that, despite our global history of war, people are in fact naturally kind to one another. He describes Hobbes and Rousseau and pits their differing viewpoints against each other. At times I found his explanations simplistic and almost patronising. His insistence on referring to humans as Homo puppy for a lot of the book was very irritating.

Bregman provides examples of events where one might expect people to turn on one another but where they have instead cooperated with each other. He convincingly debunks numerous scientific experiments that allegedly prove that human nature is naturally evil or unkind. Then he explains selected historical events (e.g. Christmas in the 1914 WW1 trenches, the election of Nelson Mandela) through his lens of the kind human. There is no shortage of empirical evidence presented to support his hypothesis. At times I found the seemingly endless examples tiresome to read.

I became interested in this book after reading a newspaper article about the "real Lord of the Flies" account described in it. This is certainly one of the most exciting parts of the book and I would love to read more about this particular case. Overall, Bregman's theory is interesting, and if we all took note of his epilogue of ten rules to live by, perhaps we would all be kinder to one another. But, for me, the style of writing fell into a frustrating in-between space between patronisingly simple and dry academic, and that's why this gets 3 stars instead of 4.

The perfect lockdown read, which couldn’t be better timed. The kindness we see around us right now proves Bregman’s point that humans are, at their core, overwhelmingly decent and Hobbes had it all wrong. There’s lots of research and examples to make his case and some of the most famous psychological experiments Such as the Standford Prison experiment (which has been contradicted since) are highlighted. An accessible and interesting read.

A profound call for hope, Humankind is the correction to our innately negative view of humanity. Comprehensively addressing the traditional arguments against goodwill towards others, and offering thoughtful actions to take away, this book will surely stand as one of the most important of this period.

I don't often read this kind of non-fiction (I'm not a huge fan of the conversational, bloggy style), but I really enjoyed Humankind. Kindness is a fascinating topic, and and I found this exploration genuinely compelling.

I think what works best about Humankind is its structure. It's perfectly paced and logically moves from theory to theory. Bregman doesn't just present key philosophical concepts, but pulls them apart and breaks them down into comprehensible pieces - without the use of jargon. Humankind covers a lot of ground, but it does so in such a measured way that I never felt lost or overwhelmed by information. There are a few too many black-and-white comparisons (theories that were presented just to be neatly overturned), but this is a topic which has attracted a lot of contradictory ideas, so perhaps that shouldn't be surprising.

Humankind is a refreshing, intelligent and thought-provoking read.

2020 for many has been a difficult year for many. In Britain, we've had to contend with Brexit, storms, the threat of war and now corornavirus. In the face of all this adversity, it's times like this that we need a little hope.

Fortunately, Humankind, the latest book by popular historian Rutger Bregman, has appeared on the horizon to offer an optimistic look at humanity in essence. Bregman attempts to answer looming questions on the nature of people both individually and as a whole. Are humans essentually good or bad? Do we function solely for ourselves or for the good of the people around us?

Humankind is an effective rebuttal to the cynical and pessimistic perspectives on human nature presented by many sociologists, psychologists and historians across the ages. In particular, Bregman addresses the conflicting views of two behemoths of enlightenment philosophy, Hobbes and Rousseau.

In this period of uncertainty and reflection, Bregman's book was a true tonic. His passion for his subject was tangible throughout his writing and his optimism was inspiring. Thoughts, opinions and facts were carefully researched and deftly argued, although occasionally obscure anecdotes seemed to do some heavy lifting when it came to defending certain points.

Humankind is an easy read which shares many complex concepts in a way that is both accessible and enjoyable. I rarely felt that the book was preaching, and for the most part is read almost as a conversation with a friend (albeit one who is highly researched and deeply perceptive).

I didn't agree with all of the ideas presented in the course of the book, some of which I felt were oversimplified or selective with their evidence. I also felt that the true premise of this research was not 'are humans inherently good?' but rather 'is civilization inherently bad?' Bregman seems to know with some certainty what humans and society were like between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, the concept that palaeolithic people were entirely peaceful and egalitarian being a keystone in his arguments. Even if this were true (as it is, it's not something that could ever be proven one way or the other), I couldn't shake my perhaps cynical view that this is not now the world in which we find ourselves. Wars, violence and inequality have pervaded all of recorded human history, and I don't feel like the reasoning Bregman offered for this satisfied my skepticism.

While I may not be fully converted to the author's optimictis viewpoint, I truly appreciated this book for opening up an interesting and thought-provoking dialogue and for providing insight into some of the most (in)famous psychological and philosophical experiments of the 20th century. The final chapters on how to apply new research to the redevelopment and/or complete restructuring of schools, businesses, politics and prison systems were compelling reading. I found myself reflecting consistently on the ideas and histories presented, and the sharing of some of Bregman's beliefs has incited some serious and interesting debate in my own household.

If some books overgeneralise humanity's indiscretions and ills, then why not one which does the same with the opposing perspective. To look at history's moments of shame or violence through a lens of understanding and compassion is a powerful skill - sometimes uncomfortable but in many ways pivotal to real social change. Bregman's ten steps to readdressing and refocusing perspectives onto the positive aspects of human nature are an important take away, and this book will continue to have me thinking for a long time to come.

Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for kindly giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

An in depth look at humanity that informs us that we are not so bad after all. Some sensitive subjects such as Brexit and the war are covered but Bregman writes in such a way that you can't help but enjoy this informative book. A great book especially during lockdown when we need to appreciate what we have.

Rutger Bregman has opened my mind to so many thoughts with this book. His premise is that we, us, humankind, are actually much nicer than we think we are. He cites early on the William Golding story of Lord of the Flies where a group of shipwrecked boys end up turning into savages and even killers before they are rescued. But Bregman suggests that this isn’t a true representation of us at all. Rather he tells us of a true life boys shipwrecked story where they created a beneficial community - growing vegetables together, supporting each other. They, contrary to Golding’s savages organised a system of when tempers frayed they had a place on the island where they could go to cool off and calm down, like a naughty step but for temper trantrums. I don’t agree with everything he says. He does say a couple of times that he wonders if his quest to see the good in things blinds him to reality and perhaps his maybe-naivety is a good thing. I found it fantastically interesting to think about and therefore question. It’s well written and thought provoking and I hope everyone, everywhere reads it - having mentioned it to just three people they have all bought it immediately and we’re discussing it and will do for a long time to come.

This book is very much required these days. It's an optimistic look at humanity and human features as opposed to the negative ones.
It's very readable, very approachable with engaging writing. It'll make you feel better for sure.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.